There are Christian Leaders today who persecute the Lord Jesus

It’s important that those Professing Christians as described by the Lord Jesus in John 14:23 are travelling along the Narrow Road that leads to Heaven. While those as described in John 14:24 are still on the Broad Road that leads to Hell – as all people are who do not love and obey the teachings of the Lord Jesus.

In your life, you will have to face Christians who are condemned by John 14:24. You may even be one of them!

The Jewish Leaders start to persecute the Lord Jesus for putting the will of his Father before their religion.

This image is from the excellent film of John’s Gospel in HD where some Jewish Leaders start to persecute the Lord Jesus.

John 5:1-16 (NIVUK)

The healing at the pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralysed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’

7 ‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’

8 Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’

11 But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’

12 So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.

Why then should Jesus not confront today’s Christian Leaders who persecute Him (John 14:23-24)?

Are they not condemned?

Today with have Christian Leaders who are as those Jews were. If you are obeying the Lord’s will for you before obeying their version of Christianity, they will not show you love. The love commanded by the Lord Jesus.

The Two Greatest Commandments and the New Commandment

Matthew 22:36-38 (NIVUK)

36 ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’

37 Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” [Deut. 6:5] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Matthew 22:39 (NIVUK)

39 And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” [Lev. 19:18]

John 13:34-35 (NIVUK)

34 ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

The “Ten Commandments” as Stated in the New Testament

Matthew 19:17-19; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20; Romans 13:9-10.

Romans 13:9-10 (NIVUK)

9 The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ [Exodus 20:13-15,17; Deut. 5:17-19,21] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ [Lev. 19:18] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.

There are many Christians, yes, even Christian Leaders, who harm me by refusing to obey the Lord Jesus and show me love! It has been so since 1977. It’s written in my Testimony below.

You may ask, “How can they be persecuting the Lord Jesus when they are persecuting you?

Acts 9 (NIVUK)

Saul’s conversion (Saul later became, Paul, because people were so afraid of Saul)

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’

5 ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked.

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.

When Saul, and today’s unconverted Professing Christians refuse to show love to a true Disciple of the Lord Jesus who is obeying Him. They are doing it to God!

John 14:23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.’

Life on the Narrow Road to heaven is all about living in a relationship with the Lord Jesus and His Father God through the Holy Spirit of God.

THESE PROFESSING CHRISTIANS ARE GOD’S ENEMIES AND NEED TO REPENT!

The Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:21 ‘I have declared to both Jews and Greeks [non Jews – that is us] that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.’ (NIVUK)